Menelaos Lountemis

Menelaos Lountemis
Born	c. 1912 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died	22 January 1977 (aged 64–65) Greece
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Greek

Menelaos Lountemis (Greek: Μενέλαος Λουντέμης, 1912 – 22 January 1977), was a Greek writer born in Constantinople. His pen name was inspired by his later homeland's river Loudias.

He was the only boy of the five children of Grigoris Balassoglou (who after fleeing Turkey and finding refuge in Greece changed it to Valassiadis) and Domna Tsouflidi. He first appeared in Greek literature in a very young age, publishing poetry collections in "Agrotiki Idea" of Edessa in 1927 and 1928, which signed under his real name (Takis Valassiadis). Circa 1930 he published poems and short stories of his in "Nea Estia" magazine. The first time he used his pen name was in 1934 for the short story "Μια νύχτα με πολλά φώτα κάτω από μια πόλη με πολλά αστέρια". He was awarded with the State Prize for Prose in 1938 for his short stories collection "Τα πλοία δεν άραξαν " and with the Golden Daphne Award in Paris in 1951. He was also awarded the "Menelaos Lountemis" prize which was established in his honor by the Hellenic Association of Litterateurs which is awarded annually to the best prose of the previous year. A public building in Bucharestwas named after him (Lountemis Mansion). According to Vassilis Vassilikos, "he is considered the most educated Greek after Nikos Kazantzakis".

A refugee from Yalova after Greek genocide, he found shelter with his family initially in Aegina, then in Edessa and finally in the village Exaplatanos of Pella, where he lived from 1923 to 1932 when he moved to Kozani. He lived for a while in the state boarding house of Edessa. His family was wealthy, but bankrupted in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) and Lountemis had to work hard in his adolescence as a scullion, shoeblack, cantor, and teacher in villages of Almopia, and even as a foreman at the then under construction Gallikos river infrastructure works. In the 10th grade – of the six-grade secondary school of that time – he left school due to political reasons and he was expelled from all secondary schools of his country. (His engagement in left-wing politics and his political activities from inside the lines of the Communist Party of Greece cost him his expulsion from the entire school system.)

...
Wikipedia